About Pamela
Dr. Pamela Kayanan is a licensed counselor with 25 years of experience helping people cope with anxiety, depression, trauma, and addiction. She holds a PhD in Counseling and Education and is licensed as an LPC and as an LMFT in Virginia.
Her work focuses on practical steps people can take to feel steadier and more connected in daily life. She uses straightforward, evidence-informed approaches such as cognitive behavioral techniques and client-centered methods to help people change unhelpful patterns.
Background and approach
She also draws on dialectical behavioral strategies and motivational interviewing to support emotion regulation and commitment to recovery. Sessions aim to be collaborative and goal-focused so clients leave with clear next steps. Her background includes long-term work with people facing PTSD, mood disorders, and substance-related issues.
Pamela has experience supporting parents navigating adolescent substance use and wrote a guide called Teenland to help with parenting challenges during adolescence. She has also worked with professionals in high-stress roles who struggle with work addiction and related family strain. Clients can expect a calm, direct style that balances skills training with listening.
Pamela emphasizes building practical tools for managing anxiety, cravings, intense mood swings, and relationship friction. She supports problem solving around communication, boundaries, and parenting stress. Pamela offers services in English from Virginia and accepts international clients.
Her practice includes multiple session formats to fit different schedules and needs.
Therapeutic approaches for online care
Client-centered therapy focuses on listening and understanding each person's perspective. The therapist follows the client's lead, offers empathy, and helps people clarify their goals and values so they can decide what changes to make.Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) helps people notice and change thoughts and behaviors that keep problems going. It is useful for anxiety, depression, PTSD symptoms, and many mood concerns by teaching practical skills to manage worry and mood shifts.
Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) provides skills for regulating intense emotions and improving interpersonal effectiveness. It can be helpful for people who struggle with strong reactions, relationship conflicts, or impulsive behaviors.
Choosing the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will collaborate with each person to determine which methods match their goals, needs, and preferences. That decision may shift over time as new issues emerge and progress is made.
Online therapy offers flexible ways to meet. Video calls let people see facial cues and practice skills in real time. Phone sessions are an option when bandwidth or screen time is limited. Live chat and text-based messaging suit quick check-ins, brief coaching, or moment-to-moment support between sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy into busy lives and ongoing recovery routines.
Questions people ask
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What this counselor works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Addictions
- Family conflicts
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Adoption and foster care
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- First responder issues
- Intimacy-related issues
- Mood disorders
- Parenting issues
- Postpartum depression
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 25 years
- Licensed
- Virginia
- Languages
- English